"Apathy"

"No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work.”

How many of us has walked pass when an accident happened on the road? Although I do not have an accurate answer on the question but I believed most of us would have avoided the situation because we do not want to get involve with police case or we have a prior important work to be done. I came across accident news reported on 15 April 2013 where a mother and child were both bleed to death as no passerby stopped for assistance. And the most horrifying scene captured in CCTV about the accident is that the husband was pleading for help from the passersby for more than 40 minutes and yet no one stopped to help/assist. One hour later, the police arrived and they took the mother and the child to hospital but both were declared death on arrival.

If there was assistance from the passerby, I’m sure the mother and child would’ve survived. Sadly, we've lost them both because of our fear or our apathy in helping accident victims not related to us. According to government report, during the past ten years, over 11 lakh people have lost their lives and 55 lakh seriously injured or permanently disabled. The figure is astronomical. If we have done our duty as a good citizen, the figure could have been 11 lakh lives saved. We may regret about our apathy to help others however it is not going to comfort our conscience. But we can change and we can turn this around. The least we can do to help the accident victims is to call the Ambulance and stay with the injured until the ambulance arrives. The earlier stereotype ‘if I help an accident victim, I will be prosecuted by the police and will be summoned to appear in court’ is gone.

The committee appointed by Supreme Court has recommended any person assisting the accident victims should not be subjected to civil and criminal liability. Also, the helpers shall not be forced to disclose their identity and shall not be called to appear for court hearings. This is very good news for us from the government. For details, please see the screenshot below which I have extracted from Times of India.

I hope the screenshot helps.

The quotes I have written in the beginning are the words of Mother Teresa. And I’m always inspired by Mother Teresa selfless service toward the sick, leper, poor, etc. in Kolkata when other people were scared to go near them. Yet, Mother Teresa defied all logic's and treats the sick and the leper like her own children. Her selfless service towards the poor, sick and leper of Kolkata was recognized by the Nobel Prize committee and she was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979. The criticism she gets from people like Aroup Chatterjee, Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ali did not deter her from helping the sick and the leper. And even after she passed away, it certainly did not deter her Mission of Charity foundation to help people.

Often, the bystander who just stood and watched turns out to be critic or else he/she would have help instead of just watching and digging out the reason on why the person is helping another person. Selfless service comes with sacrifice and love for one another. It just me or we all have this tendency of looking things in a negative perspective. I guess the first thought that comes to our mind when we see a street dog coming towards our direction, we think ‘the dog will bite me’ and then we simply shoo away the dog. Is it not possible the dog was happy to see you and was expecting a biscuit from you? Our negative approach is the factor which has claimed the lives of over 11 lakhs accidents victim we could have saved. And I’m equally part of it but we can change our attitude with positive approach right here and now. We can all join our hands together and helps one another like family.

Food for Thought: “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Abraham Lincoln.

Thank you. Have a good evening!